[1] A man of great physical bearing, at 2.01 m tall and weighing 120 kg, Émile Mallet came to Brazil with his family at age 17 in 1818, initially living in Rio de Janeiro.

[3] Previously, while in France, Mallet had concluded one year of studies in mathematics in the prestigious Saint-Cyr military academy, but he dropped out to accompany his family.

In 1837, however, as the Ragamuffin War raged, he was called back to service under General Antônio Elisário de Miranda e Brito, as commander of a horse-drawn gun battery.

[6] In the last conflict, initially in command of the 1st Horse Artillery Regiment, he had a key role in the victories of Paso de Patria, Estero Bellaco and Tuyutí.

Specifically in Tuyutí, the largest field battle in South American history, his guns were called "revolver cannons", for both their accuracy and firing speed.

Mallet had ordered a deep trench to be stealthily dug in front of his cannons, impeding both infantry and cavalry charges against his position.

His body lies in a mausoleum which is maintained by the "Mallet Regiment", as the 3rd Self-Propelled Campaign Artillery Group [pt] is called, in Santa Maria in Rio Grande do Sul.

In São Paulo, in the neighborhood of Vila Zelina, there is a street named Marechal Mallet, and in the district of Guaianases there is a school named after him; in the state of São Paulo, in the city of Praia Grande, there is an Avenue Marechal Mallet, in the same neighborhood where Fort Itaipu [pt] is and where the 6th Coastal Motorized Artillery Group was based until 2004; nowadays the 2nd Anti-Air Artillery Group [pt] is based there.